Caius Cosades
by Brighter-Than-A-Thousand-Suns
Summary: The story of a mad tyrant's quest for power, and the one man who was powerful enough to stop him.


**Just something I started several years ago. I didn't really write the beginning, so I'm working from there now. I'm also editing the 50+ pages of story that was written for about chapter 3 onwards.**

Caius Cosades woke up to the birds singing. He looked at Caldera's sundial, which was easily visible from his window, 6 a.m. He smiled; he was going to have an early start. He walked down the stairs of Ghorak Manor, which he had had completely refurbished when he bought it off the Orcs. Ghorak Manor was one of his two houses, the other was called Ravenloft and only accessible via teleport amulet. The amulet in question was one of a kind and Caius kept it on his person at all times, making it virtually impossible for someone to break into Ravenloft. This was a good thing, as Ravenloft was filled with trinkets of Caius's many endeavors.

He called out to his servant, a dremora who Caius had permanently summoned two years ago. Over the time, Caius had been teaching it to talk, cook, and clean, really to work like a human.

"Sssssir?" it asked, having entered the room.

"Morning. I'm going out today. I don't know how long for, a couple of days probably. I'm heading over to Solstheim, by boat. I'm going to walk to Seyda Neen; I can't be bothered with a Silt Strider. I have my armor and weapons all here; I brought them from Ravenloft last night. While I get set up, could you please cook my some breakfast? Nothing special, just a kwama egg or something."

"At onccccce ssssir." It said, bowing out of the room.

Caius went back into his bedroom and started getting into his armor. Simple a pair of greaves, boots, a cuirass and a pair of pauldrons. All of this armor was a mix of glass and chitin. While chitin wasn't very strong, it was more comfortable than many armors, and Caius wasn't expecting there to be any battles. On his right forearm he put on a strange looking bracer and sheathed a small hammer. Both of these were more for luck than anything else.

Caius then went back to the kitchen where the dremora had cooked him a breakfast. Like he had said, it was just a kwama egg. Just an uncooked kwama egg on a plate. You had to be very precise with dremora servants. Caius smiled to himself and ate it anyway, not wanting to hurt the feelings of a creature which probably didn't even have feelings.

"You'll be fine here on your own?" he asked the Dremora jokingly; the Dremora lived here alone for months at a time: a week was nothing.

"Yesss, ssssir." it replied, not understanding the joke at all.

Caius stood up, nodded at his servant and left the house, setting off for Seyda Neen. It was still early, so the only people he saw were guards and Irgola the Pawnbroker. The guards nodded and Irgola politely said hello. Caius nodded to all of them, not saying a word.

His journey to Seyda Neen was a remarkably short and uneventful one. It took him two hours, due to the fact that he had drunk a fortify speed potion and levitated over all the obstacles.

By the time he reached Seyda Neen, the townspeople were beginning to rise. He was greeted by a lot of "Hello, sera." and "Lord Nerevar, what brings you to our humble town?" He didn't stop to chat with any of them, but did briefly answer their questions, telling them he was taking his galleon out, giving no precise answers as to where. He still smiled at being called Nerevar, though. It had been six years since he killed Dagoth Ur, his status as Nerevarine had begun to wane and most people didn't care anymore. There was a new emperor, Thalen Velas, who was well known to hate Caius. No one knew how he had risen to the throne, nor was he loved by any of the population. He was a tyrannical leader, destroying all those who resisted him. Most of the provinces were controlled completely by him, but parts of Vvardenfell had resisted, and he had them in his sights now.

Secured in a small alcove at the edge of Seyda Neen was his galleon, bought several years ago, and cost Caius a king's ransom. Caius stopped to look at it and smiled. That was one nice galleon. Then, his smile faded. There was something wrong with the galleon. Caius walked up to it and looked at what. Someone had carved into the side! At first he assumed it was vandals, but then he read what was written.

Caius Cosades

You don't like me. But, I am about to make you a proposal you can't refuse.

We are both powerful. You, the Lord Nerevar reborn, I, the Emperor of Nirn, but I feel as though we could have more. There are still those who disregard our authority, but if you were to join me, then we could rise up against these entities, and rule!

Join me Caius, my friend. It will be better for us all.

I am residing at Thirsk in Solstheim. Come and meet me and we shall discuss the new arrangements.

-Thalen Velas, Emperor

Caius read it. He read it again, this time hovering his hand over the words and muttering an incantation to restore the wood.

Caius was infuriated. That swit wanted him to join his quest for power? Caius scowled. He would meet with Thalen, but never join him. He untied the galleon, boarded it and set off with his crew for Solstheim.

The journey took two days, most of which Caius stayed in his cabin seething over what Thalen had said. And done.

Finally, they arrived at Fort Frostmoth. He didn't stop to talk to anyone, so the residents just saw a muttering man storming through the fort, buckling on a sword as he went.

It only took him two hours to find Thirsk, throughout the whole time he muttered about the swit, his quest for power, carving into his boat and some other, previous memories he had of Thalen. Finally, he was there. He walked over to the doors into the entrance hall, finding one ajar. Only a fool would leave doors open in Solstheim. He pushed it open even more, finding the second set of doors ajar also.

For effect, Caius threw them open with a loud crash. He almost smiled. His appearance had done precisely what he wanted: startled the people inside. They saw a muscular man enter, wearing an expensive robe that bulged in such a way that showed he wore armor underneath. Only then did he look at the people in there.

There was Thalen and Erich the Unworthy in the back of the room, having been crouching around a small table. Several feet in front of them there was a corpse with no head and a pool of blood. Caius recognized it as Skjoldr Wolf-Runner, the chieftain of Thirsk. There was a bloodied axe nearby.

Along the walls there were thirteen men, all standing at attention, most of which looked as though they had been enslaved.

"You son of a swit, Thalen..." said Caius, loud enough to hear.

"Caius! You came! I knew you would. Oh, him?" he said, seeing the dead Skjoldr, "He refused to accept the New Order. You shall join me, I presume?"

"I will never join you, Velas." said Caius quietly.

Thalen smiled. "The same old Caius Cosades. Still mad over what happened in our school days?"

"Our school days have nothing to do with it!" roared Caius, instantly furious, "I will not sit idly by while a tyrant like you rules Cyrodiil!"

"Fine. I don't need you."

"You're wrong. I don't fear you. You fear me. Why else would you want me to join you?"

Thalen said nothing for several seconds. Then,

"Kill him."

Thirteen men drew weapons and began to surround Caius.

"Thalen...this is not a good idea..." warned Caius. Thalen ignored it.

One man leapt at Caius, swinging a glass sword. Lightning fast, Caius drew a small hammer, no bigger than a bell hammer, and swung it at the man's head. The hammer struck, crushing the man's skull. His body had descended into Oblivion before it hit the ground. Two more men quickly received the same fate. Another managed to dodge his swing, but tripped and fell to the ground. Struck in the chest by a spark spell, he died instantly. Another man managed to get behind Caius and crouched down. Caius, who had been slowly walking backwards, tripped over him and landed on the ground heavily. The man responsible quickly got a face full of flames and didn't get up again.

Now on the ground, the hammer Caius was using was no use. He threw it at a man's face, and while he almost managed to dodge, it still clipped him in the side of the head. It ricocheted off and landed at Thalen's feet, causing him to jump, but not come to any harm.

Caius kicked hard at the shins of the next man. He fell, and Caius seized the daedric katana he was holding, using it to stab him through the temple. Pivoting, he sent a frost spell at two more men. A fire spell would have been more effective, but not wise in a wooden building. The moisture in the men's bodies froze and expanded, blasting them apart. Caius quickly slaughtered the other men with his newly acquired daedric katana. His final kill was an almost cowardly one; a man lay on the ground, having fallen earlier.

"No! No, please, don't-" Caius stabbed downwards. He fell silent. Caius released the sword and strode over to Thalen.

"You don't want to do this, Thalen." He said calmly.

Thalen was shaking with anger, "I can get more! I can get the armies of Tamriel, I can fill the lands with my soldiers, and you will never be safe! I will have you hunted down! I'll…I'll…"

"No. You won't. I will face you. We'll settle this, once and for all. A fight to the death. You and me. The Vivec Arena-"

Thalen picked up the hammer and swung it at Caius without warning, hoping to end this now. Caius's movement was too quick to see, but he brought his right arm up and blocked it with his wrist. On his wrist sat a peculiar looking bracer. There was a loud explosion, and the next thing Thalen knew, he was being thrown against the wall. The hammer had flown from his hand.

"I'm sorry, Thalen, but you'll have to do better than that. This is Wraithguard. It protects me from the unhindered power of Sunder." He bent and picked up the hammer. "This is Sunder. To attempt to use it without Wraithguard usually causes instant death. Lucky for you, Wraithguard absorbed most of its power.

"The Vivec Arena, Thalen. Two weeks."

With that, he turned and strode through the door, leaving Thalen sprawled across the floor surrounded by corpses.


End file.
